


Quarter-Hour Difference

by TwoCatsTailoring



Series: A Quarter Hour [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Everybody Lives, Multi, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2018-12-31 23:52:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12143844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCatsTailoring/pseuds/TwoCatsTailoring
Summary: Did you ever wonder about the events of your life? If you'd been early to that meeting? Late for that date? What if you'd left on time and got held up in traffic? Sometimes, a quarter of a hour's difference can make all the difference in the world.An Everybody Lives (But Maybe Not Happily) AU.





	1. The Fight for Insomnia

“Damnit Libertus,” Crowe cursed under her breath even though there was no one nearby to hear her, let alone the man himself.  She’d asked him to fill up the bike’s tank before she left and he didn’t. So now it was sitting at a quarter of a tank and she needed a full one just to get to her first stop. That’s what she got for thinking he’d change a lifetime of habits.

She was pretty sure that if she asked him to wash his pits he’d say he would then wouldn’t. Idiot.

She checked her watch. It as fifteen minutes until the appointed time for her to head out, but what difference would it make if she went to get gas? The difference between completing this job and not, is what it would amount to.

She waved to the delivery van driver and popped the helmet on her head. There should be a gas stop about an hour beyond the walls. She started the bike’s engine and peeled out. If she got lucky she might just make it and not be too far off her mark in catching up with the Princess’s convoy. She wasn’t supposed to make any unauthorized stops, but who would know?

She noticed the van within five minutes. Another five had her wondering if it was following her, and by the time both pulled in at the station (Hammer head, it proclaimed itself, complete with a shark in the middle of the desert.) she was sure of it. She filled up the tank, greatful for the steady stream of people who were coming and going out of the shop.  There was safety to be had in numbers and since the driver hadn’t budged from the van, she could only hope that whoever it was would keep being a pansy long enough for her to go pee.

No such luck, and the last thing Crowe remembered clearly was the damp bathroom air flipping the ends of her hair as her assailant raised his arm to bring the butt-end of his gun down on the back of her head.

***

“Whaddya mean she’s gone?” Libertus was getting louder as anger and fear clawed their way out of his chest. “People don’t just disappear into thin air!”

He shoved the box of Crowe’s things away roughly, causing Nyx to have to catch it before it slid off the table.  Nyx reached in and pulled out the cracked phone, eerie small smear of dried blood on the back of it and her Marlboro-kun missing an arm.

“What kind of mission did you really send her on? People don’t go missing on standard escorts,” Libertus spat at Drautos, demanding answers where there clearly were none.

“Listen, we can find her later,” Nyx said after Drautos had left with the uncomforting promise of a full investigation that he wasn’t so sure would actually happen.

“You don’t get it do you? They aren’t going to find her, they don’t care. Just like Lucis never cared about Galahd.” Libertus’s face twisted in pain as he headed for the door on his broken leg. “I’m sick of it. None of us are second-class citizens. Not me, not Crowe. See you around, hero.”

Nyx watched him go before picking up the box of Crowe’s things and heading home.

***

“She isn’t dead,” Nyx said with a bit more force than was proper or necessary.

“I’m sorry,” Lunafreya faltered, her brows knitting together. “I was given to believe that…” She trailed off, nothing having prepared her for this precise conversation. There was only so much one could anticipate, and ‘being informed that her escort had died only to discover that was not the case via information from a bodyguard’ wasn’t high on the list of common social situations.

Nyx sighed and straightened his shoulders. “There’s no definite information available either way. Not yet.”

Lunafreya’s face remained a mask of mild confusion as she nodded, fingering the gold hair comb in her hands until she was called away to speak to the King.

It wasn’t until he was home that night  and almost asleep that Nyx wondered who had told her Crowe was dead.

***

Luna put it together the moment that she was installed in her ‘room’ on the Imperial warship. Not completely, of course, but enough that she knew what was happening when Nyx arrived and told him as much.

“We have to get back to the Crown City. You’ve left the King unprotected. I’m the bait.”

And Astrals bless the boy if he didn’t ask questions and just followed along. But they were still too late to save the King or his Shield. Too late to turn the tide that had already rolled over the city, destroying everything in it’s path.

And the more they ran the more Lunafreya put together, matching what she knew with what she saw. The Ring of the Lucii had no qualms about taking lives, but it did not take Nyx’s. Not right away though she knew that it would. That was how they worked, those kings of old.

The drained lives just as they had King Regis. Sucking their own dry in exchange for power. Destroying lives offered willingly and ruining those that were left behind as well. And as Libertus drove, fast as he could, for the edges of Insomnia, his heart breaking as he kept up the lie of how he would go back for Nyx after he’d delivered her, she snapped.

“Turn the car around,” she demanded as morning light begin to fill the sky.

“Princess, I…,” he didn’t get any more words out because he looked at her and was met with the look that, passed down from mother to daughter for thousands of years, made the very Gods of the world bow to their will. Libertus never stood a chance.

He turned the car around.

***

“You can’t save him,” there was a ragged edge of Libertus’s voice and he felt like someone had shaved off the last of his skin, leaving the whole of his body and soul exposed to the smoky, dusty air. Everything hurt and nothing mattered.

Nyx wasn’t breathing. There was no heartbeat to feel in his good arm, his other was a charred mess looking like it would blow away in the next breeze.

“There’s no hope!” Libertus wanted to tell her to stop, tell her it was pointless, tell her that there was nothing even her powers could do – the dead couldn’t be brought back. The emptiness in his chest was starting to fill up, the the filling was a hurt like he had never felt in his life, so bitter and cold.

But the Princess, with blue eyes wide and wild, was frantic. Looking everywhere for something, who cared? Whatever she needed it wouldn’t help anyway. Libertus sat beside his friend – childhood playmate, business partner,  fellow Glaive, _family_. He was gone. Crowe was gone. Two homes were gone. Everything was gone, so what was the point.

A sharp shout of happiness came from behind him where the Princess seemed to have found what she as looking for followed by the sound of breaking glass and of her fancy shoes over the wreckage. Libertus had next to no time to take in what she had in her hands before she broke it over Nyx’s still chest and waited, panting from the exertion.

“What the hell is that Nif grape juice going to do for him?” Libertus sniffled, offended and half convinced that she’d lost her mind. He was dead. Dead was forever.

“Shh!” she demanded, putting her head down to Nyx’s chest and taking his charred hand in hers.  “it’s a shot in the dark but…,” her whisper was cut off as her breath caught and she shot upright. “Roll him over!”

Libertus was not at his best just then and would maintain for years to come that his sitting there dumbstruck and unhelpful was because of her command and his own heartbreak over the loss of everything that he’d loved. But the fact remained that his doing so forced Luna to be the one to shove Nyx’s suddenly breathing and definitely vomiting self over which earned Libertus a lapful of bloodstained sick.


	2. Just Walk Out The Door

“Isn’t there something you can do?” Libertus sounded on the edge of panic now. And for good reason. At hour-spaced intervals, Nyx had horked up more than one man could possibly contain. How his stomach had anything left in it was beyond Libertus’s ability to understand, but up it was all coming anyway.

And Nyx looked like pure, unadulterated shit.

“I’m fine,” he coughed, resting a minute with his hands on his thighs, sucking in deep breaths of the salty air on the bridge that led to the mainland. Salty and humid, but it was better than the smell of his own barf. 

“The best I can figure is that he was allergic to something in the Phoenix Purple,” Luna explained again, her voice slightly terse. “I can cure the Starscourge, but that isn’t Starscourge.” She remembered reading in one of Ravus’s manuals that allergic reactions of this sort were common enough and that until every last bit of whatever was causing it was gone from his system, he’d keep this up. But surely after so many hours, what could possibly be left?

Nyx stood up straight again, resting a hand on the roof of the Prince’s car as the latest wave of nausea subsided. “I’m fine, Princess,” he insisted. He motioned for Libertus to hand him his bottle of water and gave his friend a filthy look when the bottle he got was empty. “The hell is this?”

Libertus screwed up his face and made a gesture as if his hand were talking, “What the hell is this,” he mocked. “It’s your bottle, idiot. You finished off another one before you dumped it all back out on the side of the road.”

“Better the side of the road than his Highness’s sweet ride,” Nyx spat in return.

“Majesty,” Luna corrected. “He’s the King now. Get in, I do have somewhere to be.” There was no slightness in her sharp voice now. These two men were going to be the death of her, sniping at each other like an old married couple. 

“A thousand pardons, Princess. Or should I call you Queen since you’ll be marrying His Majesty as soon as we find him?” Nyx knew that was a mistake before he even had all the words out of his mouth, but once he’d started talking he had committed to it, so there wasn’t much he could do except slump back into the passenger seat of the car and toss his empty bottle in the floor between his feet.

Had she been anywhere else, in any other circumstance, with nothing more pressing on her mind than doing her duties as the Oracle and Princess of Tenebrae, she would have gladly let him have his little fit and left him alone with it. But this was not any other place nor was it any other circumstance and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret had had just about enough stress and horror for one day to make her subconscious mind revel at finally getting to call the shots for a few minutes.

“Nyx Ulric,” she began, her voice growing dark from the backseat of the Star of Lucis, “Did you or did you not swear an oath to serve and protect the King of Lucis? And did you or did you not,” she didn’t even give him a chance to answer, though he did open his mouth like he was going to try, “just have the loyalty to the King of Lucis to die in an effort to protect his city, his people, and his crown?”

“I did, and I’m….”

Luna interrupted again, biting off, “Then act like it.”

“Yes, your Highness,” Nyx answered, properly cowed but still annoyed. 

Luna gave him a long, hard look before turning her eyes to Libertus and giving him a short nod. Libertus, for his part, did his best to not look like he’d been cowering in fear from the fact that it felt like Luna - tiny, delicate Luna - had grown, her presence filling the entire back seat when she’d gotten mad. Spooky.

Libertus started the engine and Luna spoke again, not as angry this time, but still firm. “And please stop using my title. I am a Princess in name only; Tenebrae is just another part of the Empire now.”

“But you will be a Queen once we find His Hig-Majesty,” Nyx pointed out again.

“No,” Luna countered, handing Nyx her water bottle before she settled back in the seat. She avoided Libertus’s eye in the rearview mirror. “There will be no wedding. There never was meant to be one.”

“What?” The chorus from the front seat was bewildered.

Luna sighed. “Noctis is too young. No Lucian king has ever married before they reached thirty. The belief being that they need those years in their twenties to see the world and learn about it first hand. It is a vital part of their preparations for rulership.”

She looked out the window at the open water over the edges of the bridge before she continued, “When I was informed that Emperor Aldercapt had included Noctis’s marriage as part of the treaty terms, I knew this was no peace.”

Several things clicked then for Nyx. “That’s why you came anyway,” he said. “You came to the Crown City, knowing that, because….”

“Because I knew that if I came quietly, they would never expect to be thwarted from within.”

Libertus let out a low whistle. “You are quite the wildcard, Princess.”

“Luna.”

Libertus blinked at her for a second in the rearview mirror. “Luna.”

“Lib,” Nyx choked, turning green, “Sto……”

“Shit!” Libertus swerved to the side yet again and Nyx bailed out, landing on his hands and knees, and throwing up his lungs before the car even properly stopped. 

“Nothing at all?” He asked Luna, worry in his voice and eyes. 

Luna looked thoughtful this time, her head cocked to one side and her eyes narrowing while Nyx dry heaved over the tiniest puddle of water on the concrete in front of him. “Noo,” she drew out the last sound, “but you can I think.”

She gave Libertus a small smile and a wink before continuing loud enough for Nyx to hear, “Generally if the person who’s motion sick drives, he doesn't get as ill.”

Libertus gaped at her and Nyx snapped his head around, looking daggers at the both of them, “I don’t get motion sick,” he insisted.

“Well, you also don’t get that far gone in death very often,” she pointed out, “So I think a period of adjustment to being alive is reasonable.”

She was right, of course. Dying and being brought back tended to be a lot of physical trauma for a body. And driving did help, because he had something to concentrate on, though it didn’t last for long.

The radio warned them of the blockade in their path, a checkpoint set up by the Nifs, so that meant the car had to go. That opened up a whole new world of problems. Because along with the three of them - none of them exactly low-profile people - they had loaded up the trunk of Noctis’s car with all of Drautos’ belongings.

The thinking had been simple: proof of his and the other’s treachery and proof of his defeat to present to Noctis. A ‘problem solved,’ spoils of war thing. It’d been Nyx’s idea. But if they were going to have to walk out of Insomnia and past Niflheim MTs, they couldn't take a whole suit of broken magitek armour.

It was Libertus who had the solution as the three of them stood on the bridge, Nyx having not thrown up in a few hours and Luna having given up on her heels, staring into the trunk.

“Let’s take the helmet,” he suggested, stroking his chin, “his Glaive spaulders, and his medals.”

“Would that be enough,” Nyx wondered. He didn’t like the idea of not having proof beyond doubt. When they caught up with the Pri-King, he didn’t want there to be any ambiguity about who was responsible.

“I think it would,” Luna said with a nod. “See the medals? They’ve got the marks of the armor in them from the heat. And the spaulders are half-melted, but again the marks from the armor are there.”

“And they match the helmet.” Nyx nodded once, clapped Libertus on the shoulder, and they set to work.

More discussion made them realize that they couldn’t possible hope to make it through the blockade together so the decision was made to split up, timing their passages and agreeing to meet at the northwest corner of a fortification Libertus and Nyx knew was just beyond the walls. Libertus, being the most recently publicized, would go through first and carried the spaulders. Then Luna would go with what was left of the helmet, wrapped in Nyx’s undershirt and carried in a bag they found in the trunk. Nyx would come last with the medals, remembering his promise to King Regis to see Luna safely to Altissia and hoping if she ran into trouble his being behind her would have him find her along the way.

The trunk also provided two small but warm blankets and a toolkit that Libertus took charge of. It also gave them the idea to go over the car - a wonder of engineering - for anything they could salvage. It proved useful enough with a phone charger, a set of keys with an all-purpose knife attached, and a six-pack of Ebony under one seat and a short-case of bottled water under another. After more discussion, they elected to split the Ebony between them and leave the water, Luna leaving a note on the car’s side window alerting passers-by of it’s presence.

“We can’t just leave the car,” Nyx said as they headed off down the road to work themselves in with the refugees that would soon begin to filter through.

“We have to, Nyx,” Luna began but got no farther because Libertus put a hand on her shoulder.

“He’s right. It works, and it’s a good place to rest, but we can’t risk anybody driving it.”

It took Luna a moment to catch on to their meaning, but when she did her eyes went wide. “Can you disable it?”

And within half an hour, the spare tire from the trunk and one tire went over the edge of the bridge and the oil drained onto the roadway. It would still turn on and make a cool place for someone to rest from the sun, but it wasn’t going anywhere.

Nobody liked it their plan, and none of them really thought it would work, but it did. And they met that night at the crowded haven near their meeting point, joining the ranks of Insomnian people who were on the move. 

“Nice duds, sis,” Libertus commented as they settled in for the night, relying on their invisibility in the exhausted crowd to keep them from detection. “Where’d you score them?”

“Never underestimate the bonds of sisterhood, Libertus,” she said as she lay down between the two men, pillowing her head on her arm and curling around the bag that held Drautos’ chunk of armor. “They transcend all things.”

Libertus gave Nyx a quizzical look and Nyx rolled his eyes before flopping backwards himself before answering, “She means that girls stick together.”

Long after Luna’s breathing had evened out and Nyx’s snores joined the chorus of snores from the other refugees, Libertus sat awake, looking up at the night sky and out over the collection of ragged people around him. Trying to put it all together, trying to make sense of it, but mostly hoping that those bonds of sisterhood that transcended all things had somehow, magically extended to Crowe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it. This fic is nothing but mastrubatory elocution. AKA it's jerking off me off with all the things I would want in an everybody lives scenario. I have neither shame nor apologies to offer.


	3. Mantle of the King

Hammerhead was like no place she had ever seen before. The juxtaposition of clutter and usefulness, or junk and treasure. Of wealth and need. She hadn’t seen such a thing in all of her years. The mundane and the amazing were presented with equal lack of ceremony and Luna was enraptured by it all. 

“It’s just a garage,” Libertus told her as she reached out a hand to pick up another tin of motor oil. “They all have these things.”

Luna was ignoring his incredulousness as she read the back of this can. They all contained the same thing, Libertus had told her that, but this one said it had additives to aid in ‘fuel efficiency.’ Luna had no idea what they meant but it was amazing. Because if this and the blue canister held the same things, then why did this one cost so much more?

It was also uglier, but that didn’t seem to matter here. Because the old man who hadn’t moved from the chaise under the umbrella in front of the next building was ugly too, but he was treated with equal deference and respect as the lovely young woman who seemed to be the resident mechanic. 

Though, the woman seemed to get a good bit more attention from the male customers but that Luna didn’t need to marvel at. That, at least, was universal. And though it was annoying, the sameness was welcome in a way. The world was still marching on, still moving even though Insomnia was laid in waste behind them and she was carrying a mangled bit of armor in her bag and not totally sure what to do next.

There was a lot to do and the distraction of the garage shop was welcome relief - something for her brain to do while it sorted out what next and waited out the sudden rainstorm that was sweeping across Liede. Logic stated that she needed to try to find Noctis, find out if he was alive or dead and where he was if he was alive. But where to begin? Yes, King Regis had said he’s sent Noctis on to Altissia, but had he made it? She suspected that the radio was lying when it announced him dead in the same breath as it named her dead as well, but there was still some doubt about that in her mind. She supposed it was possible they had been intercepted, but….

Well, there was no way to know but to go look. Nyx was trying to find a way to have his phone fixed - it was badly damaged in his fight with Glauca of course, but neither he nor Libertus were hopeful. And as long as the rain continued, moving forward wasn’t advisable. Flooding could become an issue in the desert, it seemed. 

Luna was ruminating over a shallow basket of dried fruits, Libertus having joined her in trying to select a few to buy and sample, when Nyx hurried into the shop, eyes narrowed and jaw tight. Libertus was immediately on edge at the sight of him.

“What’s happened?”

“We’ve got company. Interesting company.” Nyx’s voice was tight and low, putting Luna on edge herself. What could have gone wrong now?

“The Crownsguard’s Marshal is here.”

If Libertus was tense before, there was no word in Luna’s vocabulary for what he was now. She put a hand on his arm to steady his nerves as he’d gone a ghastly shade of white-gray and found every muscle in his arm to be rock hard with tension.

“Did he see you?” Libertus asked through gritted teeth.

Nyx looked all apologies and nodded, “Yeah.”

“Shit.”

“But that’s a good thing, right? If the Marshal is here, that means that he and perhaps others managed to escape.” Luna pointed out. “Perhaps he knows where Prince Noctis is or perhaps the Prince is with him.” 

Libertus looked at the floor and Nyx wouldn’t meet her eyes and she had the feeling that she was missing something. She narrowed her eyes at the two of them, her hands on her hips. “What are you not telling me,” she demanded.

But it wasn’t something that she was going to learn from either of the Glaives in her company as the Marshal himself, Cor Leonis, walked through the doors of the shop right then. With no preamble or ceremony at all, he crossed the floor with measured steps, Nyx turning to face him, back straight and eyes straight ahead. Libertus did the same thing and when the Marshal approached them he barely paused before he lifted a balled fist and punched Libertus in the face with a sickening sound.

She wasn’t proud of it later, but the sudden violence made Luna scream. And perhaps that was why the Marshal didn’t hit Libertus again, but at the time Luna didn’t even consider that because the hard eyes of Marshal Leonis were on her, steely at first then widening as he registered who he was looking at. 

To his credit he kept enough of his wits about him that he didn’t say her name. She and Nyx had decided the morning that she didn’t need to be traveling under her own name and they’d all felt justified in using Libertus’s suggestion of ‘Stella’ when they’d heard the radio reports out of Insomnia. 

The Marshal seemed to be oblivious to the scene he’d created and he did absolutely nothing to mitigate it at all as he reached over Nyx, now crouched on the floor next to a rattled and bleeding Libertus and grabbed Luna’s hand, tugging her forward towards the door. 

And she went with him. Even though Nyx called after her to wait, to stop, Luna went with the Marshal because above and beyond anything else she knew that first, there was no talking about this situation in the middle of the Hammerhead shops. Second, if anyone knew where Noctis might be it would be the Marshal. And third, while it had been an extrememly long time since she had seen the Marshal he’d changed little in appearance and she was certain that if he’d just punched a member of the Kingsglaive he had to have a reason. 

And she wanted to know what that reason was.

She didn’t have long to wait to find out what it was. After a quick dash across the wet pavement to the garage itself, they ducked inside and shook off the damp.

“You goin’ around pickin’ up pretty young girls, still? That’s some stupid shit at your age,” the old man groused at the Marshal and Luna gaped at him. 

The Marshal managed to endear himself to Luna a little more as he glowered at the old man and answered shortly, “Even you should stand in the presence of the Oracle, Cid.”

The old man, Cid, stood as quickly as he could, groaning softly and cursing under his breath as he blushed pink to his hairline. “Lady Lunafreya,” he managed before slipping back into his own habits and calling over his shoulder, “Cindy! We got guests!”

Luna watched in the direction he called and the woman from earlier, the pretty one with grease on her hands and smeared across her nose now, popped in around a doorframe at the back of the garage. One look was all she seemed to need too, before everyone was all herded back to a comfortable if slightly overfull living space at the back of the garage.

The Marshal seemed to have his own plan in mind as he began to speak first about how happy he was to find her safe and well, but Luna was a little beyond putting up with pleasantries and politeness. She’d been through a little too much to have a lot of patience with the trappings of court life right then, plus he’d just punched one of her escorts - and the one who had been the least trouble, too. 

“Marshal, forgive me but why did you hit the Glaive?” There were some holes here that needed filling in.

“He is no Glaive,” he began, his mouth set in a frown. “He is one of the traitors to the crown.”

At this explanation, Luna just blinked. So that was what teh exchange of looks had been over and why Libertus had been so concerned hiding his face. Luna felt like she should be concerned at the fact that she’d been in his company so long, but practicality and reason ruled her life when all else failed. And she had come to no harm, in fact she had been protected from it by the man that the Marshal seemed to condemn. But he had not been there two nights before. 

Luna felt a little sick remembering it, the flashes of images from the night Insomnia fell coming unbidden to her mind and the room seeming to go terribly silent around her as she remembered it. 

“...ryea. Here, sit down. Do you want some water?” Luna blinked dumbly at Cindy, then down at her hand on Luna’s arm as she eased her into a comfortable chair. 

“Yes, please.” Her voice even sounded underwater. 

Cid was stepping through a door into another room. The Marshal was staring at her, frowning still. She felt cold all over, then too warm. Cindy’s hand in hers felt cool though and that helped bring her back down to earth. Cid returned with a glass of water, no ice but tap-cool. That helped too. 

“I understand that it might be a shock,” the Marshal said quietly, “but he was among those credited….”

Luna shook her head. “I have been in his company since the Old Wall was activated. Whatever he may have done before, his feelings are different now.”

The Marshal only stared.

Luna’s hand shook and a few drops of water escaped her cup, landing on the blue floral upholstery and the black of her pants. “Had it not been for the Glaive Libertus, I would have been trapped in Insomnia, certain to die.”

The Marshal looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Lady Lunafreya, I am sure that he assisted you in some small way.”

Something in Luna that she did not know she possessed snapped. She thrust her glass to the surprised Cindy and, with hands that did not seem to remember what grace was, wrenched open the wildly patterned bag that held Glauca’s helmet and dragged it out. She dropped it with a dull thud on the wooden coffee table.

“While Nyx Ulric ultimately took his life, that would not have been possible had not Libertus dragged him along a wall in the Prince’s car then taken him on almost bare handed. You will not stand there,” Luna’s voice cracked and she hated herself for it but straightened her shoulders all the same, “And tell me that man remains a traitor to the Crown of Lucis.”

Cid let out a low whistle and a sidelong glance at Cindy revealed to Luna that she was looking like the proverbial cat in the cream.

Luna’s stomach made a sick lurch. Had she done the wrong thing? He was no subject of hers, she had no power over him. He commanded the Crownsguard, the King’s own armies of old. “Now, Marshal. If you would be so kind as to return my escort to me, we can get on with our plans.”

If asked later, Luna would not be able to say where the idea for her words had come from, nor would she be able to name where the power behind her voice came from. But it didn’t matter in the end because without another word, the Marshal did has he was told. 

It took another hour for the Marshal's calls to finally reach Noctis, new and uncrowned King of Lucis. 

Another hours wait and he was there, Noctis was standing in front of her (shorter than she’d imagined him but that was completely irrelevant) blinking at her, his face as stunned as she felt. 

The past few days have been so much, too much. Way too much for her to take in properly and finally getting to see Noctis in the flesh, to hear his voice and hug him too tight and laugh and laugh, both of them talking at once tips her right over the edge and Luna can’t help but cry.

“You’re ok? Really?” Noctis asked, swiping at a stray tear of his own while they hold on to one another’s hands. “I thought you were….”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” Luna giggled, hiccupping a little as she tried to steady herself. They did have an audience in the open bay of the garage after all. “A little grubby and raw around the edges. But fine.”

“Yeah, I know that feeling,” Noctis’s sigh couldn’t have passed for a laugh to anyone.

Luna gave his hands another squeeze and pulled him in for another hug. “I’m so sorry, Noctis.”

He nodded against her shoulder, holding her tight, knowing that she understood the loss of a parent, the loss of home, of safety nets, and direction. 

“I would put this off forever if I thought it would bring your father back or remove the weight of this duty from your shoulders,” she said when they broke apart again, “but neither of those things are possible.”

Luna pulled the Ring of the Lucii from it’s place in an internal pocket in the waistband of her borrowed pants. “King Regis charged me to get the ring to you, and now I have.” Her voice was barely above a whisper and Noctis's face was drawn with grief as he took the ring from her fingertips.

The moment the ring was in his hand, the small group of people in the garage bay; the Marshal, Noctis’s friends, the two Glaives, even Cindy and Cid; went down on one knee. 

“The Gods bless our King,” the voices of Libertus and Nyx sounded through the stillness. “Long may he Rule.”

“For hearth and home,” came Noctis’s reply, quiet with emotion he didn’t dare show.

So much had happened for the course of the past few days. It was all so much to take in, so much happening so fast. But in that confusion and chaos, Luna knew that she was watching a brand new chapter in the history of Eos being born as Noctis slid the Ring of the Lucii on his finger. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi-o! Lookit, it's a chapter.


	4. The Great Outdoors

It had been a startling revelation, coming as it had hard on the heels of her own ralizations of all she’d been through in such a short time, that Noctis was now the King. The Chosen King of Light, if they were going to split hairs about it, but that was soon shoved to the undercurrents when harsh realities crashed back in. 

They did, after all, have a very large job ahead of them. And ow that she had him in her sights, Luna wasn’t going to let Noctis go so easily. When it came time to decide on how best to split their large group for traveling - because traveling together was out of the question if only for the simple fact that so large a group would attract unnecessary Imperial attention - things got very tense very quickly. 

There were competing priorities, clearly. The first order of business, as far as Luna was concerned, was getting Libertus to the Hunter’s outpost in the north here his cast could be removed. It was a hinderance, and would become a health hazard if it didn’t come off. Good sense put him in the car headed that direction. But that was where easy consensus ended.

Luna wasn’t going to part ways with Noctis so soon and he was disinclined to a separation as well. Twelve years was long enough and they had a lot to catch up on. Nyx refused to let Lunafreya go forward without either himself or Libertus with her, Cor Leonis wanted Libertus as far from her as he could manage. Noctis’s advisor, Lord Scientia, was ready to murder anyone who even suggested taking the wheel of the car. Shield Amicitia insisted on remaining with Noctis no matter what and he took up far more room than any ordinary human possibly could in the car. And while he said nothing, Prompto Argentum, Noctis’s friend and Pryna’s rescuer from years past, clearly did not want to be long-separated from Noctis. 

After a good bit of bickering, Cindy’s good sense made itself felt yet again as she presented a plan that would keep everyone content enough to stop chattering and start moving. And it turned out to be a very wise decision in the end. 

Setting out from Hammerhead they made two parties: Lord Scientia, Marshal Leonis, Libertus and Prompto all would go by car leaving the next morning. That same afternoon, Luna, Noctis, Nyx, and Shield Amicitia would set out over land, spending the night at a haven along the way. The goal was to meet again at the Hunter’s outpost the following morning to have Libertus’s cast seen to before parting ways again to make their way to the Archean’s home in Duscae.

But before leaving, there were certain housekeeping tasks to be taken care of and not a one of them was boring to Luna and she wanted to do them all. She took laundry lessons from Lord Scientia - who insisted she call him Ignis, inspected and polished her trident with Noctis’s Shield - Gladio, which struck her as an odd name. At Cindy’s insistence, she raided her closet for another change of clothes, more suitable for the dusty conditions in Liede and they were both thrilled to learn they wore the same shoe size, thought Luna was sure she came out the winner in that exchange. Luna shopped with Prompto and it was there that she got to ask the question that had bothered her since morning.

“Why didn’t you tell them you wanted to stay with Noctis?”

“Oh, um.” Prompto stammered and rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the floor. “I-it didn’t really matter. We’re all going to the same place, right?”

Luna thought he was probably lying. He was very bad at it, it seemed but he was trying and the last thing she wanted to do was make the King’s particular friend uncomfortable by prying. “I suppose so.”

“Besides, you two have a lot of catching up to do. Wouldn’t want to get in the way.” He’d walked away then, before she could say anything else and had called her over a few minutes later to point out the ‘highway robbery’ the shop was engaged in with the price on a replacement phone charger.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye. With a hug for Cindy, a kiss to Cid’s leathery cheek that made him blush and shoo her out the door, and see-you-soons from the four they left behind, Luna set out into the dry desert sunshine with Gladio, Nyc, and Noctis. 

Noctis hung on every word of her description of their experiences in Insomnia. He stood still for a long time when she described his father’s death at the hands of Glauca, one of his most trusted Glaives. He was quiet and still for so long, Luna reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, to draw him to her to comfort, but at her first touch, he turned to Nyx.

His face was creased with thought as he asked, “Can you still use his magic?”

“No, your Majesty. My magic died with him.”

All the faces around her were as grave as hers felt, frowns and lowered heads. 

“I’m sorry. I can’t give it back to you,” Noctis explained quietly. “I’m not that good at it.”

“Yet,” Gladio almost spat the word. “You just need practice.”

“And how am I supposed to get it without the Crystal?” Noctis’s outburst was understandable but it was so sudden that Luna jumped. His fists clenched at his sides, glaring up at his Shield who was glaring right back at him, Luna wasn’t sure what was happening. “In case you missed it, I don’t really have a spare lying around.”

“Well, you know who’s got it. So go take it back.” Gladio fired back and Luna took a step back, not completely comfortable with what was happening between the two men. Not even sure what it was when Gladio snapped, “You’re the King and it’s yours to protect.”

His tone on the last word was the clue the Luna needed. Protect. That’s what the Shield’s did, what they’d done for countless generations. They protected the Lucian Kings with their lives. Gladio was following in his father’s footsteps, and if King Regis was dead that meant that Gladio’s father was dead too. 

Luna and Nyx shared a look across the planes of the argument that as growing more acidic by the second. She cocked her head to one side, he lifted an eyebrow, then they moved as one. Luna placed a hand on Noctis’s arm, calling his attention back from the heated words and Nyx stepped in, a hand to Gladio’s shoulder. 

“You have both lost grievously these past several days, but you can not allow it to divide you. Making an argument out of something you both agree on will do no good,” Luna said gently. 

“In the Treaty Chamber, before we even arrived, Glauca - Drautos, the traitor - had slain many, your father the last. He went down doing his duty to his King.” Nyx shoved hard, giving Gladio a shake but keeping his grip on his shoulder tight. 

“Both are gone, and it breaks my heart as I know it breaks yours. But while our hearts break, hope remains for the world. Noctis,” she took his hand in hers and he looked up at her, his eyes bright and wet, “You know this to be true.”

Noctis nodded and looked down at the ground. Gladio kept his head held high, blinking rapidly in the glaring sunlight but finally giving a single nod. 

“There’s plenty of time to mourn,” Nyx said as he stepped back. “It’s a long way to Niflheim.”

“With lots of stops along the way,” Luna finished, giving Noctis’s hand a squeeze before letting go.

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful and generally quiet. As the shadows got longer, the smoke from the eternal fire of the haven came into sight and within a few more minutes, they had arrived. 

“I’ve got the stuff, anybody want to help make dinner,” Nyx asked as he pulled out a sealed packet that Ignis had given them before they left. 

Noctis promptly became very interested in his phone and Gladio was already driving stakes into the ground for the tent. Luna looked between them and shrugged, kneeling down beside the campfire. “I can’t say that I’ve made anything more complicated than a cup of tea, but I’ll try.”

Nyx stared at her and shook his head, “You really are a princess, aren't you?” He opened the bag and pulled out the ingredients along with a notecard that had a recipe on it. “Look in that bag and let’s see if we’ve got a decent knife.”

Luna rummaged around in the bag in question and came up with a rather lethal looking knife that she handed over, only for the two of them to realize, after unpacking the food, that there was no prep work needed. 

Noctis chuckled, “That’s Ignis, all right. Convinced we’ll starve without his expertise.”

Gladio grunted and dropped himself into the chair Luna had vacated. “Honestly, we would’ve been fine with Cup Noodles.”

Nyx, who’d been reading the recipe card huffed a laugh and agreed, “They’d have had more flavor than this, at any rate. I’ll never understand how you Crown City folks can eat bland stuff night and day.”

Gladio and Noctis looked alarmed and their twin wide-eyed stares make Luna giggle. 

“Don’t get me wrong, there’s good food in Insomnia,” Nyx said, backpedaling. “But man, it’s hard to find.”

The staring continued and Nyx grew uncomfortable with it. “What?”

“Nobody,” Noctis said, glancing over his shoulder like he was expecting to be overheard, “Has ever called Iggy’s cooking bland.”

“Nobody,” Gladio agreed. He didn’t look as concerned as Noctis did but he still spoke softly.

Nyx looked from one to the other as if he’d never seen the likes of these kids before in his life. Luna pressed her lips together so as to not smile too obviously, and waited to see what would happen next.

What happened was something that she would never forget if she lived to be 100. Nyx surveyed the prepped food in front of him. Carefully diced pieces of meat, evenly cut veggies, a few packets of seasonings and herbs. Then he looked up at the sky, then out at the surrounding landscape.

He stood up, then spoke. “By my guess we have about 30 more minutes of daylight before the daemons come out. That should be plenty of time.”

He was greeted with blank stares. “Gladio, see that patch of grass over there?” He pointed and Gladio turned to look, nodding. “Pull a handful of it up by the roots. Be careful, though. The wax burns.”

“Princess,” he turned and Luna sat up straighter on her knees, “There is a cactus that I saw not far from here. It’s got a red flower on it.”   
“I remember,” she nodded.

“I’d like one of the flats of it. About the size of your hand, if you can find one.” He handed her the knife from the bag and she nodded again, heading for the edge of the haven.

“What about me?” Noctis asked as Gladio filed off after Luna. 

Nyx blinked at him, seemingly having some kind of internal debate with himself before finally settling on saying, “Come with me. We need to find some nuts.”

It took less than the 30 minutes he had guess for them to all be back, their missions successful save for his with the King. And Nyx’s opinion and view of his King was forever tarnished by the fact that he now knew, with absolute certainty, that King Noctis Lucis Caelum was completely incapable of climbing a tree without falling out of it.

Because they’d done it four times. And he’d fallen out of all four.

Nyx, to his credit and Noctis’s relief, said nothing and had the decency to not laugh out loud at him. And Noctis, to Nyx’s relief, kept his falls to a maximum of five feet off the ground.

With Luna and Noctis’s help, the two of them chatting about old times and fond memories and shared jokes (some that fell flat in speech when they had been hilarious on paper,) Nyx pulled together a meal that had some interesting side effects. 

Noctis couldn’t explain how it worked beyond, “The Crystal’s power is a little different for everybody that used it.” But as soon as they had all stuffed themselves silly and washed a degree of the heat out of their mouths, the added  _ benefits  _ of eating in Noctis’s company showed up.

Gladio stood and stretched, his shoulders popping gently as he reached up. A belch rumbled up and escaped and Luna had been about to laugh when she gasped instead at the visible noxious cloud that came out of his mouth.

Gladio’s surprise had him breathing that in, then his eyes rolling back in his head, and he sank like a stone, out cold on the ground tangled in his camp chair.

All three of them sat stunned and Luna clapped a hand over her mouth in belated fear when she put two and two together. That was when Noctis had began babbling to explain to her and Nyx that his part in the Crystal’s magic seemed to be to make food and drink do extra things that weren’t always expected.

Several tense minutes later, after determining that Gladio wasn’t hurt and was in no danger of dying, they held an impromptu conference at fireside. 

“Sire,” Nyx asked, his voice serious, “With all due respect, how in the hell is that helpful?”

“It’s not,” Noctis admitted, flustered. “It’s not like I have any control over it!”

Luna, almost afraid to speak at all now, after watching Gladio take himself out, managed to peep, “Will this wear off?”

“Yeah, the other stuff wears off pretty quick so I don’t see why this wouldn’t.” He cast an uneasy look over his shoulder at the tent. “But I’m not so sure about enclosed spaces while it’s still. You know.”

“Yeah, and seeing what a burp can do, I don’t even want to think about what might happen the other direction,” Nyx said.

Noctis groaned miserably, “I hadn’t thought of that. Hell!”

“Nothing happens,” Luna said quietly, her hand still hovering around her face, just in case.

The two men looked at her, their faces made of curiosity. 

Nyx caught on first and began to laugh outright and Noctis was not far behind, cramming his fist into his mouth and turning away to hide his own mirth.

“Stop it!” Luna insisted, swatting Nyx’s shoulder. “Don’t tease me like this!” She felt her face heating up and knew that she was the unattractive shade of blotchy red that she always got when she was embarrassed. It was terrible, awful! But she couldn't help but laugh a little herself. 

Noctis’s shoulders were still shaking when he turned back around and she tried to frown at him but failed miserably. “That settles it. We are sleeping out under the stars tonight. If Gladio’s toxic sludge didn’t kill us, it’d be Luna’s biological warfare.”

Luna gaped at him and Noctis danced out of the way as she tried to kick him. Nyx had tears on his cheeks from laughing so hard and was having trouble catching his breath. Luna turned her back on them and walked to the tent, determined to keep some of her dignity intact. She pulled her bedroll - borrowed from Prompto - out and positioned it so that she had a nice view of the stars before taking off Cindy’s boots and socks and shedding shirts down to her singlet. 

“You two are horrible and I hope you know it,” she scolded as embarrassment and humor vied for the top emotion.

“Aww, c’mon Princess,” Nyx begged as he dragged his bedding out as well and set up next to her. “If we’re going to be out here in nature, we’ve all gotta take what comes naturally.”

Nyx plopped down and pulled his boots off and Luna wrinkled her nose. “There is nothing natural about that smell,” she complained. “At least I had the decency to stay upwind.”

Noctis wasn’t holding himself together very well and tried to make himself useful and distracted by checking on Gladio. None of them as about to try to move him, but they had at least gotten him out of his chair. Noctis tossed a blanket over him and pulled his own bedding out of the tent before piling it into a big lump, kicking his boots off, and burrowing into his nest. Luna watched him with a smile and giggled as his head popped out of the side closest to hers, already looking sleepy, but with a small smile on his lips and the inability to look her in the eye without giggling.

They all settled in and got quiet, then Luna had a thought. “I find it interesting,” she said innocently as she could manage, “That you both are out here. But perhaps neither of you trust yourself not to soil the air quality in the tent.”

There was a heavy pause, some minor shuffling in the dark, then both conscious men snorted and laughed again. Luna joined them, still embarrassed but considering that if freedom like this was going to come with fart jokes, she’d take it anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is meant to explore the idea of an Everyone Lives AU for FFXV. I know it's been done a million times, and nearly every one of them in because the ending of the game in canon is just too painful. It didn't cause me any amount of angst after the first time I watched it (before I ever played the game) but it does bother me because it really seems needless. There's just an awful lot of room left for human intervention. So I've decided to take on writing what would happen if the humans, well. INTERVIENED.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!


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